This is just me randomly looking at my shelves and thinking "what shall I rec?" (ETA: with a heavy emphasis on stuff that I consider comfort reading, since I'm in that mood at present and you aren't well so I am projecting that on you too.) You probably know about many of these already but what the hell, here are some random books that I like!
Rosemary Sutcliff's "The Eagle of the Ninth" and its two sort-of-sequels, "The Lantern Bearers" and "The Silver Branch". Roman Britain, buddy adventure stuff, full of loyalty and affection. I think they're meant to be YA but I never read them til I was an adult. (Might want to check for animal harm/death... I can't think of any but it seems possible. I'm pretty sure there's no *character* animal harm/death though... there are hunting scenes and stuff, though.)
Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose". I just re-read it and it's fabulous. 14th century murder mystery (that's also Sherlock Holmes fanfic) with huge lashings of philosophy and theology thrown in. Which you can actually skim if that's not your thing or you're not in the mood... it's actually very readable on many levels. Lots of stuff in there about how books reference other books, though, in a way that I thought of as media-fannish this time through.
P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" books. Fluff! Perfect for when you're feeling unwell! The Blandings Castle series are also pretty good, as are the Psmith books, but the standalones are pretty awful for the most part.
Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. My recommended reading order: Clouds of Witness, Strong Poison(*), Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Have His Carcase(*), Murder Must Advertise, Nine Tailors, Gaudy Night(*), Busman's Honeymoon(*). Those with a star form an arc that must be read in that order... the others are standalones that can kind of be read in any order, but I've just tried to intersperse them a bit with the others in ways that will make sense, I think. (ETA2: there are other books I haven't listed, and IMHO they're not so good, so I don't rec them particularly, but if you love this lot then you can go all completist and read the rest.)
Connie Willis, various. I like "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (time travel comedy of manners romance), "Doomsday Book" (time travel pandemic drama in the same universe, contains child death in said pandemic), "Bellwether" (fluffy spec-fic romance about fad research), and "Miracle and other Christmas stories" (spec fic Christmas stories, like it says on the label -- mostly humorous).
Those are just some things I can see from my seat here on my NEW SOFA. (Did I mention I have a new sofa? That is actually in my living room? And placed in a standard, horizontal position, so I can sit on it? Oh! Speaking of which, you should read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams. Time travel musical sci-fi romance mystery. And then some. With a geometrically impossible sofa stuck in the protagonist's stairs.)
Many of these are probably available for Kindle. I haven't checked, but they're mostly mass market fiction, you know?
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Rosemary Sutcliff's "The Eagle of the Ninth" and its two sort-of-sequels, "The Lantern Bearers" and "The Silver Branch". Roman Britain, buddy adventure stuff, full of loyalty and affection. I think they're meant to be YA but I never read them til I was an adult. (Might want to check for animal harm/death... I can't think of any but it seems possible. I'm pretty sure there's no *character* animal harm/death though... there are hunting scenes and stuff, though.)
Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose". I just re-read it and it's fabulous. 14th century murder mystery (that's also Sherlock Holmes fanfic) with huge lashings of philosophy and theology thrown in. Which you can actually skim if that's not your thing or you're not in the mood... it's actually very readable on many levels. Lots of stuff in there about how books reference other books, though, in a way that I thought of as media-fannish this time through.
P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" books. Fluff! Perfect for when you're feeling unwell! The Blandings Castle series are also pretty good, as are the Psmith books, but the standalones are pretty awful for the most part.
Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. My recommended reading order: Clouds of Witness, Strong Poison(*), Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Have His Carcase(*), Murder Must Advertise, Nine Tailors, Gaudy Night(*), Busman's Honeymoon(*). Those with a star form an arc that must be read in that order... the others are standalones that can kind of be read in any order, but I've just tried to intersperse them a bit with the others in ways that will make sense, I think. (ETA2: there are other books I haven't listed, and IMHO they're not so good, so I don't rec them particularly, but if you love this lot then you can go all completist and read the rest.)
Connie Willis, various. I like "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (time travel comedy of manners romance), "Doomsday Book" (time travel pandemic drama in the same universe, contains child death in said pandemic), "Bellwether" (fluffy spec-fic romance about fad research), and "Miracle and other Christmas stories" (spec fic Christmas stories, like it says on the label -- mostly humorous).
Those are just some things I can see from my seat here on my NEW SOFA. (Did I mention I have a new sofa? That is actually in my living room? And placed in a standard, horizontal position, so I can sit on it? Oh! Speaking of which, you should read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams. Time travel musical sci-fi romance mystery. And then some. With a geometrically impossible sofa stuck in the protagonist's stairs.)
Many of these are probably available for Kindle. I haven't checked, but they're mostly mass market fiction, you know?